I think the question of safe hands is critical, Mr. Bratina. I would say that a long study of the history and practices of the Canadian security intelligence community, which goes back decades, indicates that on the whole we conduct security and intelligence practices in a lawful manner and that a culture of lawfulness is actually deeply embedded in the core security and intelligence agencies.
One of the concerns I have about SCISA in that context is that if you draw in agencies from outside of that core that do not have a proper understanding of national security and maybe don't have that culture of lawfulness around complex national security issues, you're going to create problems that otherwise wouldn't be there and don't need to be there.
We have faced scandals in the past and examples of unlawful activity, and no doubt those will occur in the future. But fortunately, in the Canadian context, they're rare in number and I don't think we need to worry about the Canadian security and intelligence community being at heart unlawful or lacking that culture. I think the culture is strong, and, to a certain extent, has been reinforced in Canadian practice by some of the difficult experiences of working, frankly, with the United States as an intelligence partner and ally post-9/11.
